RelPol – IKOS Religion and Politics Podcast

Our guest in this episode is Chiara Arnavas, a PhD Fellow at IKOS, who works on the intertwined construction of geographic, ecological, and religious frontiers in India. Chiara will share her insights on the dark side of sustainable urban projects in West Bengal and the discriminatory dynamics they entail. To learn more about Chiara's work, you can listen to her conversation with Kenneth Bo Nielse...

In this episode of the podcast, Zsolt Györegy, a PhD Fellow at IKOS, takes us to 17th-century South America and explains how cultural historians search for traces of native voices in missionaries’ chronicles using techniques of cultural translation. To learn more about Zsolt’s work, you can read his Open Access article Translating Guarani Artefacts in Antonio Ruiz de Montoya's Conquista Espiritual...

Our guest in this episode of the podcast is David Atwood , Professor of Religion in the Public Sphere at the University of Zurich and Director of the Center for Religion, Economy and Politics . David will help us understand how the act of organizing history has political implications and how historiography can give rise to new myths. This conversation serves as an introduction to his book  Sc...

In this episode, we are pleased to host Bojidar Kolov, a lecturer in Russian history at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø and an expert on the political theology of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Bojidar will help us understand how the ROC perceives its role in relation to the Russian state and how its discourse provides ideological resources for the expansionist aims of Putin's regime...

In this episode, we are joined by Aike Rots, Professor of Japan Studies at the University of Oslo. Aike shares some of his findings on religion, politics, and ecology in Vietnam, drawing on his research project Whales of Power . We explore how Vietnam's Communist government navigates religious plurality and how environmental changes influence local religious practices. To learn more about Aike's w...

Our guest in this episode of the podcast is Mark Teeuwen, Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Oslo. Mark will introduce us to one of Japan's most famous festivals, Kyoto's Gion Festival, and help us retrace its millennial history. We will discover how religion, tradition, and politics are deeply interrelated and have helped shape and transform the festival over the course of the cen...

In this episode of the podcast, Olav Børreson Fossdal, MA, a scholar of religion and emerging expert in the field, helps us navigate the complex journey of Iranian asylum seekers in Norway who are in the process of converting to Christianity. His insights are based on a skillful combination of empirical research and theoretical reflection, showcasing his deep understanding of the subject matter. D...

Our guest in this episode of the podcast is  Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay , an Associate Professor of Global Cultural Studies at the University of Oslo. Bodhisattva is a specialist in global future fiction and the director of the research projects  CoFutures  and  Science Fictionality . In our conversation, he explains to us how myth and politics intersect in works of science fict...

In this episode of the podcast,  Hanne Amanda Trangerud  takes us on a journey into the world of American Evangelicalism, shedding light on the relationship between Born-Again Christians and the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. You can read more on the subject in her articles " The Trump Prophecies (journals.sagepub.com) " and " The American Cyrus (mdpi.com) ." Hanne...

In this episode we meet our first international guest,  Ricarda Stegmann (unifr.ch) , a Lecturer in the Study of Religion at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland. Ricarda will tell us about the religious and political role of the Grand Mosque of Paris and introduce us to the analytical approach known as "entangled history." Her latest book is titled, " Verflochtene Identitäten Die Große...

In this episode of the podcast, we discuss with  Kathinka Frøystad , a Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at IKOS. Our focus is on her recent research about religious offence in India and the various ways in which religious controversies can either escalate unexpectedly or be resolved peacefully at the local level. Kathinka shares some of her findings from her latest book, which she co-e...